Saturday, February 4, 2012

The Veggie Gardener Stirs!

Here's what's happening in the garden at the moment. We've got heaps of seedlings started, some have just been planted out and some will go out in the next few days. We've also got strawberries, zucchini, and tomatoes fruiting and lots of herbs, salad greens, snow peas, beans, cucumber, beetroot, leek, potatoes, and a surprise pumpkin that's sprung up in the wood pile! (probably started from what we feed the chooks)

It's all been a lot to learn and manage but I really enjoy it and every crop which fails is just a lesson basically, although this year we're doing quite well (since my first seed planting which all failed!). This year the tomatoes aren't going as well as they did last year because we totally forgot to rotate them, but there's still 18 or more on the go and lots of flowers. The zucchinis aren't dong as well either and despite having been rotated I'm wondering if it's got to do with being near the tomatoes.

Yesterday we ripped out a huge pile of mint because it was taking over the whole hot house. We initially planted it in there while we were painting the house and needed to transplant the herb garden. We also ripped up the broad beans which were more or less finished for the season (will plant more of them next year). We left the roots of the broad beans in the soil and just cut the tops off because their roots make fabulous fertiliser. There was a heap of chard that we ripped out too but because it self seeds we have quite a few left in that bed.

The fruit trees are all looking healthy, even the apple tree that Vinnie destroyed has been going strongly and it's covered is lush green leaves.  We bought two blueberry plants yesterday and we'll work out where to plant them some time in the week when we have a gardening day. I'm also looking into cross pollination to see if any of the fruit trees we have need friends in order to make fruit. I've ordered a passion fruit tree that's frost resistant and I'm debating where to put it so it won't steal the sun from the veggie garden.

Here's some pics!

Broccoli, leeks, spring onions (probably too small to see) and teeny beetroot. 
 Potatoes, teeny beetroot, snow peas.
 Newly planted herb garden with parsley, thyme, rosemary and yarrow. Transplanted mint in hanging basket looking very sorry for itself.
Fruit trees in chook proof enclosure. Fig, pineapple guava, and red currant. 
Chard, zucchini, and tomatoes at the back. 
Cabbage, lettuce, oregano, sage, chives. 
Gardener's assistant

Updated from the slackest blogger alive!

I can't believe it's been over 4 months since I last blogged anything. it's not as if nothing is happening, it's just that I've been completely slack!

Recent news is:

We went on a holiday to A's family shack. I was feeling really down because it was James' 4th birthday so we packed up and away for five days. It was just what I needed to gather my thoughts and find my groove again.

the kids at the beach around the corner from the shack.

Crab that was at the beach. There were THOUSANDS of them, you could actually hear them scrabbling across the sand.

A wave breaking on the rocks at the lookout near The Blowhole

View from the lookout about 100m above the Tessellated Pathway

Angus enjoying the evening constitutional on crabby beach

Waves crashing into the blowhole. We happened to go on a day when the weather was wild 
so it put on a spectacular show for us.

echidna on the path near the blowhole look out. It was quite unphased by the tourists!

Devil's Kitchen

So it was a fabulous holiday. We went swimming on every day but the day the mercury hit 13 and we were all nearly blown away in a gale, but that was the day we went to the blowhole and the weather was perfect for that! The kids went canoeing, fishing (Spike caught a flathead and was very chuffed), swimming under the jetty (where we saw a stingray) in the warmest water I've ever swum in, bush walking, we played board games and card games and I read three books. Perfecto!